Grenfell inferno ‘culmination of decades of failure’: UK inquiry

LONDON: The Grenfell Tower disaster that killed 72 people was the “culmination of decades of failure” caused by incompetence, dishonesty and greed, an inquiry into the UK´s worst peacetime residential fire ruled on Wednesday.

Unveiling his 1,600-page report, inquiry chair Martin Moore-Bick said the deaths were “all avoidable” and slammed the building firms who provided the cladding and insulation materials that allowed the flames to spread so quickly.

The retired judge said residents were “badly failed” by those who should have ensured the building was safe for them to live in.

“Not all of them bear the same degree of responsibility for the eventual disaster but... all contributed to it in one way or another, in most cases through incompetence, but in some cases through dishonesty and greed,” he said.

The fire in the early hours of June 14, 2017 spread rapidly through the 24-storey block in west London due to highly combustible cladding fixed to the exterior.

Starting in a faulty freezer on the fourth floor, the blaze took barely half an hour to climb to the building´s top floor with catastrophic consequences.

Following the publication, survivors called on the government to act urgently.

“The government must now exert control over the sector to prevent further dismantling of public safety, which used to be their main job, not aiding and abetting crooks and killers,” said Grenfell United, which represents some of the survivors and victims.